January 5, 2006(Audio) Homily by Fr. Robert AltierThursday
Before Epiphany

Reading (1 John 3:11-21)Gospel (St. John 1:43-51)

In the first reading today, Saint John reminds us once again of the
message we have heard from the beginning; and the message we have heard from
the beginning, he tells us, is that we are to love one another. Then he goes on
to tell us that we have to love not just in words or in speech, but in deeds.
We have to act upon this love.

What exactly does it mean? Well, he tells us straight out that anyone
who hates another person is guilty of murder. If we look into our own lives, we
can ask ourselves, “Is there anybody that I hate?” Now there is a difference
that we need to make, a very clear distinction, between hating the person and
hating their actions. If people do things that are evil, we need to reject what
they are doing; we need to acknowledge that their actions are wrong. However,
that is different from hating the person. We cannot hate the person. Remember
the old saying: “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” That is what we have to be
about, and we need to keep that distinction very clear in our minds.

What does it mean to love the sinner? It means that we would desire
only the good of that person, that we would want that person’s conversion, that
we would want the person to be able to go to heaven. There are some people I
have talked to, for instance, and when they look at someone who has hurt them
terribly, they will say straight out, “I don’t want them to go to heaven. I
don’t want to be with that person for the rest of eternity!” In heaven, all
there is going to be is love. If we have such hatred in our hearts for somebody
that we would not want them to go to heaven, then we cannot go there either.
That is the problem. Remember what Our Lord told us with regard to the Our
Father when He pulled
the one statement out about forgiveness and said, If you
do not forgive others their sins, your heavenly Father will not forgive you
yours. So this is not
something that is optional for us. We like to try to justify ourselves and why
it is okay for us to be the way we are, but there is no justification. If we
are going to say that we believe in Jesus, how can we then turn around and say,
“But I’m justified in hating; I’m justified in refusing to love”? We cannot.

Now love is not about happy feelings. Jesus is not saying to be gushy
toward somebody you do not like. That is not what He is saying at all. He is
telling us that we have to have true virtue, that the virtue of charity
requires that we would treat somebody–even if we would consider them an
enemy–with charity, that we would seek what is truly the best for them, that we
would pray for them, that we would not be holding a grudge against them. These
are not easy things that the Lord is asking of us, but remember that we profess
to follow Somebody who looked at His executioners and said, Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do. If He can do that and the martyrs have been able
to do that, we too have the grace to be able to do that. Saint John makes very
clear that anyone who hates his brother is a murderer. It falls under the Fifth
Commandment: Thou shalt not kill. To hold a grudge, to hate, these are
violations of the Fifth Commandment. And Saint John says that we know the love
of God does not exist in any murderer’s heart. So if we want to be able to say
that we love God yet we do not act upon it, if we walk around holding lots of
hatred in our hearts, the true love of God is not there. No matter how much we
want to talk about it, the reality is that we betray our own selves with our
actions. And so we need to try to adjust ourselves so that our hearts are
united with His, so that our hearts become like His.

Now if you look at your own self and you say, “But I look inside and
see that there is indeed some hatred, that there are people whom I don’t
forgive, that there are people whom I have a grudge against–what do I do?” then
go to the Lord and ask Him for the grace to be able to forgive, to be able to
let go, to be able to love these people that have hurt you or that you do not
even like. Pray for the grace to love them. That is what Our Lord would ask of
us. Pray for those people. That is the quickest way to break through any kind
of hatred or anger or anything else that is in our hearts. Pray for those
people. Ask God to bless them. Ask Him to bring about their conversion. Ask Him
to help them grow in virtue. It is in doing that that you are doing the most
loving thing for them. Eventually, what will happen is that the charity you are
exercising toward them through prayer is going to wind up changing your heart
so that the hatred is no longer there. You cannot do acts of true charity and
continue to hate; the charity will eventually win out.

If we see that we are harboring anything that is not good then we
realize, not that we do not love God at all, but that we are not loving God the
way we are supposed to and we are not allowing the love of God to reign in our
hearts. So we need to make the adjustments. That is what we are looking for,
and that is what Saint John is telling us. We can have complete confidence in
God, he tells us, if we turn to Him. Whatever our hearts condemn in us, he
tells us, we need to turn to God with confidence. And so if our hearts are
condemning us because we hold anger or grudges or hatred or whatever it might
be, then turn to God with confidence and know that there is nothing more that
He would want for us than to be able to have our hearts filled with His love.
If we are willing to make the effort, we can be guaranteed that His grace will
make up for whatever might be lacking in us, and that His grace will change our
hearts to become like His–His heart is nothing but love; that is all–and when
we are able to do that, then we are living the commandment that we have been
given, the commandment, Saint John tells us, that we have from the very
beginning: that we must love one another.

e is telling us, Thisi s what I want, but I
want

*This text was
transcribed from the audio recording of a homily by Father Robert Altier with minimal editing.